New leadership appointed for program and section heads by SHASS for the academic year 2025-26
In the vibrant academic community at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), renowned scholars are set to take on leadership roles in shaping the future of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
Sandy Alexandre, an associate professor of literature, has been appointed as the head of MIT Literature for the 2025-26 academic year. Alexandre's research focuses on late 19th-century to present-day Black American literature and culture. Her first book, "The Properties of Violence: Claims to Ownership in Representations of Lynching," uses the history of American lynching violence as a framework to understand matters concerning displacement, property ownership, and the American pastoral ideology in a literary context.
Meanwhile, Manduhai Buyandelger, a professor of anthropology, has been named the new director of the Program in Women's and Gender Studies. Buyandelger's research centres on achieving more-integrated and less-violent lives for humans and non-humans, examining the politics of multi-species care and exploitation, urbanization, and how diverse material and spiritual realities interact and shape the experiences of different beings. Her essays have been published in prestigious journals such as American Ethnologist, Journal of Royal Anthropological Association, Inner Asia, and Annual Review of Anthropology.
Buyandelger is also developing an anthro-engineering project with the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) to explore pathways to decarbonization in Mongolia, her home country. In collaboration with her colleagues in Ulaanbaatar, she offers a transdisciplinary course, NSE, 21A.S01 (Anthro-Engineering: Decarbonization at the Million Person Scale).
Eden Medina, who studies the relationship of science, technology, and processes of political change in Latin America, will serve as head of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. Medina earned her PhD from MIT in 2005.
As for the Program Management for Science, Technology, and Society, there are currently no search results indicating who will likely be the director in 2025.
Sandy Alexandre previously served as co-head of the section in 2024-25, and Manduhai Buyandelger has written two books on religion, gender, and politics in post-socialist Mongolia: "Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Gender, and Memory in Contemporary Mongolia" and "A Thousand Steps to the Parliament: Constructing Electable Women in Mongolia".
Both Alexandre and Buyandelger earned their degrees from prestigious universities. Alexandre holds a master's and PhD in English from the University of Virginia, and a bachelor's degree in English language and literature from Dartmouth College. Buyandelger earned a BA in literature and linguistics and an MA in philology from the National University of Mongolia, and a PhD in social anthropology from Harvard University.
These scholarly appointments promise an exciting future for the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, as these renowned researchers bring their unique perspectives and expertise to the forefront of academic leadership.
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